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Last update:

$Date: 2014/07/21 08:08:29 $

History

1901

first survey by Albert Neischl.

1922

discovery of new parts by Hans Brand.

1922 bis 1931

development as an show cave and electric light installed.

1949

discovery of diluvial animal bones by Georg Brunner in a cleft.

Description

Image: Kaiser Barbarossa (Emperor Barbarossa).

The imposant, 13m wide, 11m high and 80m deep portal in the walls of the
Weiherbachtal (Weiherbach valley) is known for a very long time.
It was called Teufelsloch (Devils hole) by the locals.
Only about 100m were accessible at this time.
The discovery of new parts increased the cave length to 1,500m.

Image: the romantic cave exit.

The cave entrance is known for long, and numerous visitors from near and far
visited the beautiful site.
At the end of the 19th century the cave was completely damaged, no dripstones
remained and the bones in the cave sediments were removed almost completely.

The show cave of today was discovered 1922 by Hans
Brand behind the long known entrance.
The new parts contained several huge halls with beautiful speleothems and
numerous bones.
Most of the bones were from cave bears (Ursus spelaeus).

The paleontologist Max Schlosser reconstructed the skeleton of a cave
bear, which is now on display in the cave.
Remains of human origin were not found.

After the discovery, Hans Brand developed the cave as a
show cave, which meant an enormous work.
The first hall of the tour shows a small display of mining machinery, which was
used to develop the cave, among them lores and drills.
The character of the cave is typical for the local dolomite karst: huge chambers
and narrow connections.
In order to connect the halls with paths of suitable size, numerous tunnels were
driven into the rock.
The result is the longest cave tour in Germany, about 1,500m long, with about
half of the distance being artificial tunnels.

The bggest chamber is called Riesensaal (Giants chamber) with a length of
30m and a width of 16m.
The most interesting stalagtes are the Barbarossa and the
crucifixion, three larger stalagmites sourrounded by smaller once,
symolizing the people.

But the biggest sight of the cave is outside and freely accessible.
The portal of the cave, the cave cafe, numerous small caves and abris all
around, and the cave exit itself.
From the cave exit the path leads through a labyrinth of strange looking rocks
back to the cave entrance.